Here we go again.

That certainly didn't last long.

I'm away from home again. It seems I have become somewhat of a firefighter. I go wherever a problem flares up and try to beat back the flames. I'm in Ohio right now. It took almost as long to get here by plane as it does to drive (security headaches caused quite a delay) but since I'm traveling alone, everyone at work encouraged me to fly. Apparently everone's concerned about me falling asleep at the wheel right now.

This could call for some late nights, or it could be a really easy fix that only takes a day or two. Of course the chances of this being easy are just about as good as my chances of winning the lottery (and I don't buy lottery tickets!!)

Wish me luck!

Wow

Who needs an apartment?!!

Educational post

Decafalon (n.):
The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that will not help you keep awake.

Odds and ends

I don't have much material stored up in my files right now, so here's a quick rundown of some unusual items I've come across lately.

Apparently there are plenty of places that have a problem with overzealous government spending. Malaysia is now launching an official search for. . . guess who:

BIGFOOT!

Moving right along...
Harry Potter here we come! A Russian scientist is now laying claim to a method of optically consealing static objects. It's not the first time people have tried to do this, but all of the other guys who worked on projects like this just seemed to fade away.


Money troubles may take on a new meaning soon. Apparently Kazakhstan has some particularly unusual problems.

Radioactive Dollars!On the bright side, you couldn't easily misplace your wallet if it was glowing.

More news if I find anything interesting.

Small wonders

Amazingly enough, nobody was in my favorite parking space when I got back.

Home again

I've had a surprisingly uneventful trip and I'm now home.

The only weird thing is how, by crossing the international dateline, I've seen the day of January 27th dawn twice. I've also seen the sunset on the 26th twice, only I saw it the second time after the first sunrise of the 27th. Anyone care to figure that one out?

I'll get back to posting after I've recovered.

Quote of the unspecified temporal interval

Engineering is the art of modelling materials we do not wholly understand, into shapes we cannot precisely analyse so as to withstand forces we cannot properly assess, in such a way that the public has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance.

- Dr AR Dykes

Wheels are made for rolin' . . . mules are made to pack

I'm scheduled to fly out of Melbourne in about 14 hours, which should put me into Chicago at around 4PM Friday (assuming Quantas 3163 lands on time)

So before I leave I should say a few words about the wonderful place I've been staying, on and off, for the last two weeks.

I believe I've mentioned before that Ballarat, like many old Australian cities, is an old mining town. What I haven't emphasized is that it still has many older buildings. In fact, until the last 25 or so years the climate was considered too uncomfortable for most people, so there was never a big move to develop the area. Now it's a fairly popular spot and the old buildings are thought to add a bit of charm to the place.

This is just one of many streets that's lined with older buildings. Of course most of this was made possible due to the gold boom.

For many years after gold was discovered in the area (mid 1800s) the lure of easy riches drew people to the area. This influx created quite a demand for lodging, so the town is still dotted with old hotels. Some of which are still active, and some of which have been converted to other purposes.

And how did people get to Ballarat? Early settlers came on foot, but by the 1860s, anyone with money took the train to the Ballarat station (you know a train nut like me would get to this eventually.)

This station still stands today and is still active (something which cannot be said about most American railway stations of this age)

What's even more fascinating to me (you non-train nuts can stop reading here if you like) is that the signal tower, old semaphor signals, and gates, are intact. The gates are still operational and, in fact, were automated LESS than 10 years ago!



I'm not absolutely certain, but I believe the black markers nailed to the semaphores indicate that they are no longer to be obeyed, as they currently have electric signals on this stretch of track. It was a nice touch of them not to remove the old tower.

That's all for now folks, with any luck I'll be back in the states soon. See you soon!

Last engineer standing

Did I say I would have a relaxing week? I was either being hopefull of foolish.

I am still alive (barely) and back in my glorious hotel room in Ballarat. Life is good once more!

Adventures in Australia

I arrived in Melbourne, Australia last week to begin the second leg of this overseas tour. One of my hosts met me at the airport where we later joined up with another engineer from Chicago.

Since it was the weekend and there was no need to rush to work, our host was nice enough to take us out for a little drive before we went to the hotel. Last time I was in Australia, there wasn't much of a chance to see the area immediately around Melbourne so this was an interesting trip.

Geography lesson:

One of the big reasons Melbourne exists is that it's in the middle of a very large, well protected bay. So big, in fact, that you can't see the open ocean from Melbourne (you can't even see the end of the two peninsulas that form the boundaries of the bay.) So to get a better look at things (and for the sake of burning a little time over the weekend) we drove down the Morninton peninsula.

It's a nice little area, dominated by retirees and vacation homes with plenty of beach-houses and shanties for the beachgoers. Out near the end of the Peninsula there's a ferry that can take you across the bay to the Bellaraine peninsular.

The ferry (actually 2 of them) sails frequently and can shuttle cars and people, with considerable comfort, from one side of the bay opening to the other.

On the other side of the bay we stopped for a quick meal then drove over to the Bellaraine peninsular Railway station. This railway is run by a group of enthusiasts who restore and operate old steam locomotives and other railway equipment.

The locomotives were very European in appearance, which can be said about many things in Australia thanks to it's British colonial days. This 0-4-2 makes a great example. The portal windows, buffers, and odd wheel arrangement would fit perfectly in an old British railyard, whereas in America it would have been labeled a 'critter' (small, unusual piece of rail equipment) rather than a locomotive.

This locomotive looks much less European than the other one. Aside from the buffer plates on the front, it could easily pass for an American docksider. Of course it's pulling larger coaches than you would normally see behind an 0-6-0, but that's probably because the larger locomotives on the BPR would cost much more to operate on a regular basis.

From there it was on To Ballarat, but that's a post for another day.